(Twelve Takeaways from Tonight's Game vs. the Detroit Tigers)
1. Max Scherzer came into tonight's game with a 2.08 ERA in his last 7 games. The defending Cy Young award winner really only had one bad inning although his control wasn't really there. He definitely had his defense bringing it tonight. He showed his poise by pitching 7 innings and 115 pitches total.
2. The Tigers traded away AJax to get David Price. Well they won't have to worry about replacing his defense with the young man Ezequiel Carrera has to offer. What a great catch to rob Jacoby Ellsbury of a triple in the bottom of the 3rd inning to basically save 2 runs and Scherzer's pitch count.
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| FULL EXTENSION! (Credit: SportingNews.com and MLB.com) |
3. Derek Jeter was 1 for 4 tonight. He now sits at 3,426 hits of which 2,564 were singles, 537 were doubles, 66 were triples, and 259 were home runs. If you added up the distance he has accumulated through his hits you would have 438,400 feet or 83.05 miles or roughly the distance between New York City and Philadelphia.
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| "That's a lot of dimp!" |
4. Who really made the base-running error, Gardner or Prado? It appeared that Gardner thought the ball was headed to home in the bottom of the 4th when Prado looked to possibly score. It's probably Gardner's fault for being overaggresive...something he doesn't do enough of whilst at 1st base looking to steal in my humble opinion.
5. Carlos Beltran has been striking the ball well as of late. Let's take a look at his composite batting average over the last 20 games and compare it to Brian McCann's who had his own hot streak a few weeks ago and is still contributing in terms of RBI. In the last week, Beltran has gone 12 for 25 with 1 HR and 5 RBI...not bad, but not the best either in terms of driving in runs. Of course he is batting in front of McCann which may help him see more pitches to hit. Since coming back to the lineup on July 18th he has raised his batting average from .220 to .248 accumulating 23 hits, 4 home runs, and 12 RBI. Not killer numbers but moving in the right direction. He batted .300 for the month of July and is batting .500 in August so far with a 1.455 ops. In that same stretch McCann has gone from a .239 batting average to .240 with only 13 hits, 1 HR and 8 RBI. He batted .299 in July but is only at .200 for the short-sample of August.
6. The Tigers rotation has 50 wins and the last 3 Cy Young winners. Talk about a dominating rotation: they are first in the AL in wins, Innings pitched per start (6.3), fewest home runs allowed (59), and 4th in the AL in ERA (3.77).
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| These guys are good...just not good enough tonight! |
7. The Tigers Bullpen on the other hand... They are 14th in the AL in ERA (4.55), WHIP (1.47), opponent's on-base percentage (.346), and last in opponent's batting average (.278) and slugging percentage (.424). Probably due to the alcoholic duo known as Joba and Coke... A big thank you to ESPN for all of these stats tonight.
8. Ian Kinsler was brought in for his offensive skills. Well tonight he showed off his glove making two substantial defensive plays. The first was a stab at a Beltran line drive and then he turned what looked to be a base hit into an inning ending double play in the 5th inning to save yet another run.
9. Brett Gardner is the first leadoff hitter since Kinsler to have 5 home runs over 6 games. Kinsler did that in 2011 when he was still with the Rangers. For the record, Gardner now has 15 home runs on the season to the former power hitter Kinsler's 11.
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| "I am Brett Gardner! Hear me R-O-A-R" (Cue Katie Perry Music) |
10. Jacoby Ellsbury is now 7 for 12 against Max Scherzer. Thanks to Carrera he is not 8 for 12 with a triple and a HR. He went 2 for 4 tonight with a single and a double.
11. Brandon McCarthy pitched 5-2/3 innings of excellence. Yes, he gets into a lot of tight spots...but he also didn't give up any earned runs while throwing 116 pitches and collecting 8 strikeouts. On a side note, the Yankees are now 37-25 in games decided by 2 runs or less (shout out to Jeff Quagliata of YES for that tidbit).
12. Houdini recorded his 30th save for the Yankees tonight. Rafael Soriano recorded 42 saves in 2012 when Rivera was injured but the last one to do it before that was John Wetteland with 46 in 1996. Maybe the post Rivera era will be just fine? Robertson has 51 games to eclipse Soriano's mark from 2012 and has an outside shot of catching Rivera for the all-time saves mark of 53 from 2004. One other major milestone from tonight's game was Joe Girardi getting his 700th win as a manager (622 with the Yankees). Also, the Yankees Playoff Odds sit at 18.8%...way down from the 34% last week...gotta do some work...
